Blogging for Business: How We Do It

We all know that blogging is good for business, but actually getting the blog done is something else. We have quite a few clients who planned at some point to write their own blogs, but almost none actually do so. In fact, I can tell you the precise number of our clients who actually blog regularly: one, a professional writer.

This absolutely makes sense. While you can find advice all over the internet assuring you that the CEO of your company should be writing the blog, this is not reasonable. The CEO of your company has other priorities. The CEO of a start up might be blogging, just as he or she might be doing the books and cleaning the company restrooms, but all those tasks should be transferred to professionals as soon as it’s feasible, so the CEO can do things like strategizing for growth, communicating the company’s culture and vision, and overseeing operations.

Here at Haden Interactive, we write 60 blog posts in a typical week. We create magazine quality posts and we find that our blogging increases traffic and conversion for our clients. Want to know how we do it?

Here’s our step-by-step process:

  1. We use keywords, analytics, and discovery tools to identify the best keywords and topics, and the client’s sales funnel to develop a strategy for each client. As we use the strategy we’ve developed, we keep track of analytics to ensure that the strategy is working, and make changes as needed.
  2. With the keywords and strategy in mind, we brainstorm topics. Some clients like to be involved at this stage, and some don’t. However much or little involvement clients want, we accommodate them. We also use information about their business, upcoming promotions, and seasonal data to ensure that the posts support the clients’ goals. We use the Edit Flow plug in to build our editorial calendar.
  3. We write the thesis and outline the main points of support in the Edit Flow metadata. This is also the point at which we identify a good illustration for the post.
  4. When we’re ready to write the post, we write a strong introduction, flesh out the main points with plenty of detail, and tie it up with a satisfying conclusion.
  5. We check to make sure the Yoast plugin gives us a green light, check the author and notifications, and save the post for review.
  6. An editor checks the post for accuracy and quality, ensuring consistent style and catching typos, and schedules the post for the appropriate day and time. For most clients, we post Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8:00. Some clients prefer to have an internal team member serve as editor; for these clients, we leave the completed post ready for them. This is also the point at which legal compliance checks take place.
  7. At  8:00, we check to make sure the post has launched successfully, fix any issues, and send the URL of the post to the social media manager for posting.

This system allows us to create quality blog posts on a regular basis and to add new clients without any loss of quality — and to enjoy the process. We have some tools we use to streamline the process, and we build websites to work with the system, but  this is basically how it’s done.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply